


Detective Sitting

by PenningMisnomer



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Babysitting, Caleb Cleveland Novels, Cuddles, Cute, Fluff, Gen, Is only mentioned really, Liches, Marriage Proposal, Soul Bounties, This is basically just 2.6K of Barry and Angus hanging out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:27:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22259452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PenningMisnomer/pseuds/PenningMisnomer
Summary: Taako and Kravitz asked Barry to babysit while they have a date night. Barry is pretty sure an 11 year old boy detective doesn't need a babysitter. Turns out, Barry was wrong.
Relationships: Barry Bluejeans & Angus McDonald, Barry Bluejeans/Lup, Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 115





	Detective Sitting

**Author's Note:**

> Written as the second work of my Janfiction 2020, an exploration of these two's adorable relationship. If you're interested, please follow me on twitter @pen_commissions. You can commission me from there if you want, but one of my resolutions is to keep the people interested in my writing up to date on WHAT I'm writing. More Janfiction 2020 works to come! I'm trying to write 8 of them!

To be honest, Barry wasn't entirely sure why Taako and Kravitz had asked him to babysit Angus. He didn't think Angus needed any babysitting. The kid was 11, a boy genius, and a detective. He'd help save the world,too. 'Babysitter' and 'Angus McDonald-Taaco just didn't seem to totally fit together, but Barry wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to spend time with his nephew.

There was, however, a problem. Angus apparently didn't have time to hang out between his studies at Lucas's school and his cases that he was working in Neverwinter. That left Barry sitting alone in Taako and Kravitz's living room with some necromancy tomes he'd been meaning to study. Angus had locked himself in the room and asked for 'please no distractions Uncle Barry'.

He couldn't deny hearing the kid call him uncle made him smile. It wasn't something he thought he'd ever have. Still, he wished he got to spend more time with his pseudo-nephew and not just exist in the same house as him. He sighed and leaned into the pillows behind him, feet resting on an incorporeal footrest. Lup was supposed to babysit with him, but reaper business had called her away. Barry probably would have joined her, but the Raven Queen didn't want her pseudo-grandchild to be without a babysitter. He figured Taako and Kravitz should just adopt the kid so that he'd legally be theirs, but he also figured everyone knew anyway.

Barry had been in their apartment for a few hours by that point and he hadn't heard a single peep out of Angus. It was almost strange. He imagined that if he and Lup had kids, they'd be wild balls of energy, so why was Lup's twin brother any different. He couldn't imagine sitting still at 11. Barry bookmarked the tome he was reading and got up to check on Angus, bringing a glass of water back with him. If there was one thing Barry definitely wasn't doing, it was letting Angus be dehydrated in the Taako's apartment. Taako would throw a fit.

Barry knocked on the door. "Hey, Ango, what's up?" he asked. There wasn't a peep from the other side of the door and Barry tentatively pushed it open. Angus had fallen asleep at his desk. Barry had a gently smile on his face and cast levitate on Angus to place him gently in bed and cast levitate on Angus's glasses to take them off. He sat the glass of water on the night stand.

Barry was bored. He had expected Angus to want to tell him all about the cases he was working and the magic he was learning, but instead Angus was asleep. He couldn't fault the kid for it. Arguably, every single person Barry knew was still exhausted from the Day of Story and Song. Having your world almost destroyed would probably tire anyone out for a long, long time.

So Barry couldn't blame the kid but he could still be grumpy about it while he picked his book back up. He read for 2 hours before Angus got up and came padding down the hallway, his curly hair a sleepy mess. He didn't say a word, walking right past Barry and into the kitchen, looking for a snack. Barry heard the fridge open and shut and the lid to a Tupperware pop off. Angus sat down in the living room with a bowl of homemade yogurt and berries. Barry rolled his eyes. He wondered if the kid was ever going to eat like a normal person ever again.

"So, Ango, what're you working on that's got you so tired?" Barry asked, looking up from his book while Angus shoved yogurt and blueberries into his mouth.

Angus covered his mouth with his hand and swallowed his food. "Finals, sir. They're coming up and I'm learning about necromantic history, but I'm also trying to solve the case of these missing diamonds-" Angus said.

Barry perked up. "Well I could help you with necromantic history!" he said.

Angus gave an awkward laugh and sat his bowl of yogurt down. "With all due respect, sir, you came from a different dimension. Our histories are different," Angus said.

"Well, with all due respect, Ango, I know that," Barry replied, chuckling as Angus flushed just a bit. "But I mean, what else am I going to do with my free time than research my magic in this world. I mean- my magic is the same as it was back on my home world but um. Well. Some things are definitely different. I've been studying the history of this place ever since I had the free time to do it."

"I didn't mean to imply you didn't think that through, sir, just that I maybe know as much as you would about this subject" Angus said, picking up his bowl of yogurt and digging back into it.

"...Well I guess that's fair," Barry said. He clapped his hands down on his jeaned knees and followed up with, "Don't you think you should eat something more substantial?"

"Oh, don't worry sir. I will when I get hungry for dinner around 2 AM. School and this case have messed up my sleep schedule. And eating schedule," Angus said with a smile. "But uh, Mister Taako left short ribs for us for dinner and I'm very excited about those."

"Did he?...Do you mind if I go ahead and eat-" Barry said.

A noise at the back of the apartment startled Angus and Barry, neither of them knowing what caused it. Angus was more immediate in his investigation than Barry was, setting the bowl of yogurt down again and hopping into action. It was only when Barry watched Angus start to walk down the hallway that his brain let him leap into action too. He hopped off the couch to follow Angus down the hall.

"I'm sure it's just the cat, sir," Angus said, looking up as Barry's form shifted into that of his reaper form and his skeletal hand took hold of his scythe.

"Can't hurt to be overly cautious," Barry said back. Angus shrugged and they pushed open Angus's bedroom door.

Angus walked into the bedroom to find that nothing had been disturbed. He turned back to Barry and gestured around the room to sort of suggest a question. Barry waved him out.

"Angus come on, I think we should go check your parents' room before we just write it off," Barry said.

Angus said something along the lines of being sure it was the cat as the two edged their way down the hall. Barry was in front of Angus, a skeletal hand hovering nearby to protect the kid if there was anything too dangerous that was going to greet them in the apartment. Barry pushed the bedroom door open with his scythe.

The entire wardrobe in the bedroom was toppled over on the floor, Taako and Kravitz's clothes spilled everywhere. It didn't look like a cat did that- instead it looked to be more like someone was looking for something. Angus gasped and ducked under Barry's arm to start investigating the bedroom.

"Angus!" Barry yelled, trying and failing to keep him from entering the room. It didn't work, and Angus had his little notebook out, looking for clues.

"There are indentations in the carpet, sir! Someone was here!" Angus said, pointing at the clear shoe imprint in the fluffy shag carpet. .

"Well it's someone big, definitely," Barry said, hunching over Angus sort of protectively.

There was another loud noise, this time in the living room. Barry straightened out and swung around to face the bedroom door with his scythe at the ready. He backed up a step to make sure Angus was directly behind him, and the boy detective didn't exactly seem excited to go running off.

"Stay behind me," Barry said. He adjusted his grip on the scythe handle and both Angus and him made their way to the living room.

When they got there, Kravitz was in the middle of the room, looking for something. He apparently knocked over the coffee table on accident and turned around to see Barry and Angus with a sheepish smile.

"Oh- Sorry," Kravitz said. "I uh, forgot to get the ring."

"The ring? Sir, are you planning on asking Mister Taako to marry you tonight?" Angus said, scurrying out from underneath Barry's protection to go over to Kravitz.

"As soon as I can find it," Kravitz replied. "I forgot where I put it, and accidentally portalled into our table which is why it's toppled over. Uh-" He bent down to fix it then and rubbed the back of his head.

Angus nodded his head then and scrambled over to the fireplace, pulling out a loose brick in the wall there. "It's right here, sir!" he called, a grin showing off the gap in his teeth.

"How'd you know that was there?" Barry asked, amazing as he came further into the living room.

"I found it when we first moved here," Angus replied, fishing the little box out with the surprisingly simple ring inside. "And then I found the ring a few months ago when I went to stash something there myself!" He held it out for Kravitz, who took it from his hands with a grateful 'thanks' and tore another portal through the living room, not wanting to leave Taako waiting any longer.

Barry and Angus were once again alone in the house and both of them settled onto the couch, mystery solved. Angus picked up the Caleb Clevelandbook he'd been reading the last time he was in the living room, and Barry went back to his necromantic tome. Things were pleasantly quiet for a time before another loud noise at the back of the apartment shook things up again.

"Kravitz! Be careful back there!" Barry called, not looking up from his book. When there was no response, Angus muttered under his breath about the cat messing around in the back, and got up to prevent it from causing any problems in his bedroom.

It went back to quiet, and Barry didn't think anything of it until he realized that Angus wasn't back yet. Barry turned to look down the hallway. "...Ango?" he called. There wasn't a response so Barry stood up to go check on him.

He expected to find Angus had fallen asleep cuddled up with a cat. He had not expected to find a Lich standing over an unconscious Angus about to ritually sacrifice him to have an undead servant. Barry stumbled through the door and stared at the Lich like she had lost her mind.

The Lich made a noise and sagged like she was disappointed. "Well, damn, you aren't the face I wanted to see," she said.

"Uh, sorry to disappoint?" Barry asked, a skeletal hand wrapping around his scythe once more.

The Lich seemed surprised to see that and scoffed a bit. "You aren't the reaper I wanted to see either," she said.

Barryreplied, "You were looking for Kravitz?"

A grin broke out across her face. The dagger she was holding threatened to stab down into Angus's gut and Barry caught it with his scythe.

"What better way to pay him back to for the death of my loved by killing one of his," the Lichwoman replied. Barry knit his eyebrows together.

"You're like, really fucking dumb, huh?" Barry asked. "I mean- you're attacking the grim reaper's adopted son while another reaper is his babysitter?"

The woman swung down her dagger in reply and Barry cut her off with his scythe again, gritting his teeth. There wasn't much of an expression to his skeletal form but he could certainly feel the rage, shoving the woman back as hard as he could. She apparently had not hit Angus very hard, thank the gods, because he groaned and sat up, wincing when he touched his eyebrow. She must have clobbered him over the head with something. Barry put himself in between Angus and the Lich woman, adjusting his grip on the scythe to strike her down.

He didn't get a chance. A portal opened up behind the Lich and before she could react, Lup's scythe cut through her. The scythe did no damage to the actual body of the being, but Barry watched as it shoved her soul out so that Lup could reap her.

"Lich Nethza! By order of the Raven Queen, you are sentenced to an eternity in the Eternal Stockade!" Lup called, her eyes a solid white in her skeletal form. Another swipe through the screaming soul, and the Lich woman was no more.

As the energy of the room settled and Barry's heart eyes calmed down a notch, Lup seemed to become aware of where she was. She looked exhausted, her hair frizzy in her braid. She frowned, still not totally aware of where she was, when she said, "Bear-bear? I thought you were supposed to be watching Ango and not going after bounties?"

"I uh, I am? Lup, you're in Taako's apartment," Barry replied.

Lup frowned and looked around a bit, saying, "Has my brother forgotten how to decorate?"

Angus blushed deeply. "Miss Lup, you're in my room," he said. His voice was quiet and shook a little, embarrassed to have any member of his family seeing his bedroom and also still recovering from the knock out he was dealt.

Lup coughed and stumbled, red as her iconic IPRE cape. "Oh- Oh, well, Ango, this is a lovely bedroom for you!" She said, maybe forcing a bit of excitement into her voice as she stepped out, trying to overplay the near insult she'd already paid him. She got a big smile on her face. "Well, uh, Taako won't mind if I crash here for now, babe. Let's sit on the couch, watch some fantasy TV!"

Angus followed Lup down the hall once he was on his feet. Barry was the last person out, making sure to get rid of the soulless body before he left Angus's room. Angus McDonald-Taaco might've been used to death, but that didn't mean Barry didn't want to reduce the consequences. He dusted his hands after floating the body out Angus's window and reducing it to ash with a flame spell Lup taught him. No trace whatsoever of the body that once was.

Angus and Lup were snuggling on the couch when Barry finally walked into the room. Lup had procured a blanket from one of the linen closest and left plenty of room to her right for Barry to lay down with them. Barry smiled, watching Angus read the latest Caleb Cleveland novel, and he curled up next to Lup.

"What're you gonna tell Taako and Kravitz?" Lup asked.

"I'll cross that bridge when I get to it- you know Kravitz is asking Taako to like, marry him tonight?" Barry said.

Lup got a sleepy smile on her face and replied, "Oh yeah, Taako's known for like a month. He bought a ring in preparation, to ask Kravitz out at the same time. It's not really a secret they're keeping from anyone but each other."

"I didn't know, ma'am," Angus replied, though he voice was sleepy.

"Ah, well," was all Lup said, petting his head a bit. Angus snuggled down and he was asleep after only a few more minutes of reading.

"You've got like, a magic touch, Lup," Barry said.

"Babe, I very much in reality have a magic touch," she replied. Barry snorted and pulled his big tome over both their laps to keep reading.After a few minutes, he yelled and jumped up as he remembered they hadn't eaten yet, racing to the kitchen while Lup snorted.


End file.
